Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, waves from a balcony in the Vatican.

Reuters

The Roman Catholic Church has elected Germany's Joseph Ratzinger as Pope, asking him to guide its 1.1 billion followers around the world into a new era.

The 78-year-old Cardinal, a staunch conservative who has been the Vatican's doctrinal enforcer, will take the name Benedict XVI.

A delirious crowd of about 100,000 cheered and waved wildly as Ratzinger, the 265th pontiff in the church's 2,000-year history, smiled and acknowledged the applause from the curtain-draped balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

His first words were met by a huge ovation.

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II the cardinals have elected me a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord," he said, paying tribute to his immediate predecessor.

"I console myself with the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act, even with insufficient tools, and above all I trust in your prayers, in the joy of the resurrected Lord, faithful in his permanent aid.

"Let's go forward, the Lord will help us, and Mary, his most holy Mother, is on our side."

The announcement that the 115 cardinals sequestered inside the Sistine Chapel had chosen a new pontiff on only the second day of their conclave came when white smoke billowed out of a chimney atop the Vatican.

It sent the waiting thousands on the square into raptures but it was not until another agonising wait of more than 10 minutes that the bells of the basilica pealed to confirm the election.

Within no time, other bells began answering back all over Rome.

Crowd reaction

Sister Lydia, a nun, jumped up and down on a chair clapping in uncontrolled excitement.

"I prayed for a new pope today at the tomb of the Holy Father (the late John Paul II) and now we have one," she beamed.

Eight-year-old Pierfrancesco, also standing on a chair to get a good view, screamed to his mother on a mobile phone: "Mama, we have a pope, we have a pope."

"We have a father again," said Zambian nun Sister Prisca. "Can you imagine? John Paul II told us to look to the future in hope and now we have this new pope."

The election by a two-thirds majority came in a fourth round of voting that had begun when the 115 cardinals sequestered themselves into the chapel late on Monday for their conclave.

New era

Joseph Ratzinger now has the onerous burden of guiding the church into a new era fraught with moral dilemmas and dissension over a host of issues ranging from emptying pews to contraception and celibacy.

A close confidant of John Paul II, he shared his conservative views.

His hardline approach, nationality and age had all been seen as handicaps, according to many Vatican watchers, but what was never doubted was his power and influence.

Born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn in the southern German state of Bavaria, Ratzinger was ordained into the priesthood in 1951, before becoming the archbishop of Munich in March 1977.

Four months later, Pope Paul VI made him a Cardinal, meaning he was one of only two of the cardinal electors not appointed by John Paul II.

Ratzinger's fierce opposition to the liberal fringe of the church has made him a foe of progressive Catholics.

He has rejected the ordination of women and marriage for priests, and also opposes homosexuality and communism, and he has never been afraid of upsetting political sensibilities.

The new Pope has a difficult task filling the void left by John Paul II - the third longest-reigning pontiff in the church's history - who died on April 2 aged 84.

The new Pope will hold his official inaugural mass on Sunday April 24.

Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls says the Pope will dine with the cardinals later on Tuesday (local time) and celebrate a mass with the prelates in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday morning.